House members including John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove (Sacramento County), won hard-fought races last year in districts with significant rural and GOP representation.

House members including John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove (Sacramento County), won hard-fought races last year in districts with significant rural and GOP representation.

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

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House members including Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, won hard-fought races last year in districts with significant rural and GOP representation.

House members including Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, won hard-fought races last year in districts with significant rural and GOP representation.

Photo: Dean Coppola, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Gun-control effort a dilemma for some Dems

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President Obama's gun-control proposals aren't likely to rock blue-leaning California, where some of the nation's stiffest gun-control measures have been enacted, but they pose a potentially tough political dilemma for several Democratic members of Congress from the state.

House members including John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove (Sacramento County), Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, Ami Bera of Elk Grove (Sacramento County) and Lois Capps of Santa Barbara won hard-fought races last year in districts with significant rural and GOP representation.

Obama's proposals for gun control present those House Democrats with a thorny issue: Do they toe the White House line and support Obama on a key issue, or do they risk alienating their middle ground and endanger their re-election?

"It is a big problem for Garamendi, possibly McNerney and maybe Bera," said GOP consultant Rob Stutzman, who managed the 2012 campaign for Colusa County Supervisor Kim Vann, who lost to Garamendi. "The press is focusing on how many Republicans aren't interested in moving these bills. But I'm not sure many of the Democrats are, either ... and I think Garamendi would love to deal with it by avoiding it."

Bill Whalen, a GOP strategist and fellow at the Hoover Institution, said that on the issue of gun control, "If there were a simple solution, and one that didn't cause any problems for Democrats, it would have been solved in 2009," Obama's first year in office.

Capps released a statement Wednesday praising Obama's proposals.

"I think we can all agree that while responsible, law-abiding Americans have the right to own a gun," Capps said, "as a country we have the responsibility to enact reasonable policies to help reduce everyday incidents of gun violence that claim the lives of 32,000 Americans every year."

Bera, in a statement, said the Connecticut school shootings highlight the need to limit "the capacity of ammunition magazines and renew a military-style weapons ban.... We must also consider closing the private gun sale loophole. Even 3 out of 4 NRA members support this common sense policy that would keep guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally unstable people."

For House Democrats like Capps who represent rural constituents, many of whom are Democrats, "there will be some blowback in the midterm," said author and talk-show host Patrick Dorinson, "because (gun control) energizes conservatives and libertarians - not just necessarily gun owners."

By pushing the issue that cuts across rural-suburban-urban lines in California, Dorinson said, "Obama just put some Democrats on the block, but he doesn't care. He basically just told them, it's every man for himself. You're on your own in 2014."